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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 3/4/88 -- Vol. 6, No. 36
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
LZ meetings are in LZ 3A-206; MT meetings are in the cafeteria.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
03/11 Con: Lunacon, Tarrytown NY, GOH: Harry Harrison.
03/13 (Info: Lunacon '88, PO Box 338, New York, NY 10150-0338)
03/12 Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA
(phone 201-933-2724 for details)
03/16 MT: Best SF Movies of 1987
03/19 New Jersey Science Fiction Society: "Space: The Next Frontier"
(C. Divine) (phone 201-432-5965 for details)
03/23 LZ: The WATCHMAN Graphic Novel by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
(Comics and Graphic Novels)
04/06 MT: TBD
04/13 LZ: THE SKYLARK OF SPACE by E. E. "Doc" Smith (Space Opera)
05/04 LZ: THE WAYFARER TRILOGY by Dennis Schmidt (Symbiotic Life,
Alternate History, and Zen Buddhism)
05/25 LZ: THE MAKING OF 2001 by Jerry Abel (The Creative Process)
06/15 LZ: The Oz Books by Frank L. Baum (Oz)
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 mtuxo!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 mtgzz!leeper
HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3M-420 949-5866 homxb!tps
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-6142 lzfme!lfl
MT Librarian: Will Harmon MT 3C-406 957-5128 mtgzz!wch
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. Our next film festival will be on *WEDNESDAY*, March 9. Please
note the one-time only change in the night. (I have a presentation
on Friday.) Starting at 7 PM we will be featuring a tribute to
Jack Rabin and Irving Block. Who are they? Sort of unsung heroes
of 1950s science fiction. They were mostly special effects experts
(the low-budget kind) though they often produced as well. Their
work represents the soul of the 1950s science fiction film. Not
even listing the films they worked on separately, together they
worked on _R_o_c_k_e_t_s_h_i_p _X-_M, _U_n_k_n_o_w_n _W_o_r_l_d, _F_l_i_g_h_t _t_o _M_a_r_s, _I_n_v_i_s_i_b_l_e
_B_o_y, _K_r_o_n_o_s, _W_a_r _o_f _t_h_e _S_a_t_e_l_l_i_t_e_s, _T_h_i_r_t_y-_F_o_o_t _B_r_i_d_e _o_f _C_a_n_d_y
THE MT VOID Page 2
_R_o_c_k, and _A_t_o_m_i_c _S_u_b_m_a_r_i_n_e. Block is also credited with the
original story of _F_o_r_b_i_d_d_e_n _P_l_a_n_e_t.
We will show two 1957 films:
Rabin and Block '57
INVISIBLE BOY (1957) dir. by Herman Hoffman
KRONOS (1957) dir. by Kurt Newmann
INVISIBLE BOY is a sort of sequel/prequel to _F_o_r_b_i_d_d_e_n _P_l_a_n_e_t. A
scientist's experiments in time travel have brought into the
present the disassembled pieces of Robby the Robot, but nobody
knows how to put the pieces together until a supercomputer with
designs on world conquest hypnotizes an overly cute young boy and
has the boy repair Robby. This film is just chock full of time
travel, space travel, an evil computer, a friendly (?) robot, mind
control, and absent-minded professors. Mostly aimed at a younger
audience but very strange.
Our second feature is KRONOS. This is the story of an attack by
aliens who take over a scientist's mind and use it to control a
giant robot-like energy accumulator that rampages up the West
Coast. Adults are often surprised to see that this was actually a
low-budget film. Childhood memories of this film rank it with much
more expensive films, films that seem at most marginally more
spectacular.
Again, note that this will be on WEDNESDAY.
2. Let me tell you something that happened a couple of years back.
In all marriages there are fights and Evelyn and I were having a
particularly nasty one. (To those who know Evelyn and me I need
hardly add that she was 100% wrong, but that doesn't matter here.)
About 10 in the evening we just couldn't stand the sight of each
other. I went into the bedroom, grabbed her pillow, and marched
into the den with it. "Take it," I snarled. She just glared at
me, thinking that things were worse than she thnought if I was
ordering her to sleep in the den. Things had _n_e_v_e_r been anywhere
near that bad. "Take it!" I told her again. She did. "Now hit me
with it as hard as you can." Her frown turned into an impish
half-smile and she swung it and hit me. "Harder!" I ordered. She
caught me one that knocked me back an inch or two, clearly enjoying
herself. I knew she couldn't hurt me with a pillow. I was better
off; she was enjoying herself. End of argument.
This message is brought to you in the hopes that the United States
has begun a long and successful Olympic losing streak. There are
all kinds of ways to hand other people pillows.
3. Actually, Mark was 100% wrong, but who's keeping track? [-ecl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3E-433 957-5619
...mtgzz!leeper
BECOMING ALIEN by Rebecca Ore
Tor, 1988, 0-812-54794-2, $3.50.
NATIVE TONGUE by Suzette Haden Elgin
DAW, 1984, 0-87997-945-3, $3.50.
Two book reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1988 Evelyn C. Leeper
The science of linguistics has been largely neglected by science
fiction, so I found it an odd coincidence (or for the Jungians out
there, just another example of synchronicity) that I read in quick
succession two novels dealing with the subject, the more so because one
is a new novel and the other a four-year-old novel that I recently
decided to read.
_B_e_c_o_m_i_n_g _A_l_i_e_n is a "Ben Bova Discovery" and considerably better
than the two previous entries in that series. (You'd never know it from
the cover, of course, which rips off _E_n_e_m_y _M_i_n_e to a fare-thee-well.)
Tom fins a crashed alien ship and tries to save the occupant. He fails,
but the beings who come after the alien decide he is not entirely
xenophobic and recruit him for the Space Academy. Part--a very
important part--of his training involves learning alien languages, and
to do this effectively he must have his brain modified to cope with
them. There is a lot more to his "becoming alien," but it's all
connected to language.
Ore does an excellent job of conveying alien ideas and concepts,
although I found her choice of main character (the brother of a small-
time drug dealer) to be less than totally satisfying. Bova and Spider
Robinson both compare _B_e_c_o_m_i_n_g _A_l_i_e_n to _T_h_e _L_e_f_t _H_a_n_d _o_f _D_a_r_k_n_e_s_s, which
may be overdoing it a bit, but it is a novel worth reading.
_N_a_t_i_v_e _T_o_n_g_u_e is based on the same premise as Margaret Atwood's
_H_a_n_d_m_a_i_d'_s _T_a_l_e (though it predates it by a couple of years): that women
have been relegated to second-class status, kept as chattel by their
fathers or husbands. This is brought about by the 24th Amendment, which
repealed the 19th, and the 25th Amendment, which deemed women legally
minors. I suppose this makes this an alternate history since the actual
24th Amendment (ratified in 1967) outlawed poll taxes and the actual
25th Amendment (ratified in 1971) described the procedure for filling
vacancies in the Vice-Presidency, etc. However, since the rest of novel
seems to presuppose our current reality, I can only conclude that Elgin
did her research from a copy of the Constitution printed before 1967.
Such sloppy research does not encourage one regarding the rest of the
book.
There is another premise, however: that we have been contacted by
aliens and certain families ("Lines") are especially adept at learning
languages, both human and alien. That women are as good at this as men
is one factor that keeps them from total subjugation--there is too great
Becoming Alien/Native Tongue March 1, 1988 Page 2
a shortage of translators to waste anyone. The plot of _N_a_t_i_v_e _T_o_n_g_u_e
revolves around this situation and the attempt of women to create their
own language.
I disliked this novel for three reasons: two minor and one major.
The first minor reason is the sloppy research already mentioned, but
this could have been corrected by a good editor, apparently not present
at DAW when this manuscript arrived. The other minor reason is that the
children in the novel all learn three to five un-related Earth languages
and one alien one from infancy. If the purpose of learning languages is
to communicate with aliens and English is a universal Earth language (as
it seems to be), why have the children learning Hopi and Swedish when
they could be learning alien languages--especially when alien
translators are in such short supply that a given alien language
probably has only three human speakers, including one toddler and one
woman? It's not from some abstract desire to keep these languages
alive, because the men of the Lines are obviously too cold-blooded for
that.
The major reason I disliked this book is that I found it so
stridently "women's lib" as to be positively reprehensible. Most books
which postulate a male-dominated society of the future show some
moderating influences. Atwood's book, for example, localized the
situation to the United States and even there there were men who didn't
entirely support it. There was also a justification for the change in
society (a decrease in fertility) and the idea that women in such
organizations as Women Against Pornography did as much to bring it about
as men. Elgin's androcracy is world-wide (hard to explain on the basis
of two amendments to the United States Constitution), brought about
against the wishes of all women (so far as we can tell), and every man-
-_w_i_t_h_o_u_t _e_x_c_e_p_t_i_o_n--fully supports it. All women, even ones who go
around poisoning people, are to be admired; all men are scum. I know
some men on this planet and the only conclusion that I can draw is that
Elgin is writing about an alien planet with an alien species on it. The
extremism of her premise and her characters makes it and them impossible
to believe and the idea that a language invented just for women would
help the situation is just one more impossibility piled on top. This is
the sort of literature often deemed "hate-literature" and I cannot
recommend it.
REPLAY by Ken Grimwood
Berkley, 1988 (c1987), 0-425-10640-3, $3.95.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1988 Evelyn C. Leeper
_W_h_a_t _i_f you could live your life over and over again?
That's the back-cover blurb to this unique alternate worlds/time
travel novel. And that's the chance Jeff Winston gets when he wakes up
from his fatal heart attack to find himself back in college. He
resolves that things will be different this time--and they are, in part
because he, like so many other time travelers, can remember the outcomes
of all sorts of sporting events to bet on. (Quick, who won the 1963
World Series?) But soon 1988 rolls around again and bang! heart attack
and he's back in 1963 again. And round it goes.
In one cycle he meets Pamela, another replayer. Together they try
to make sense of what's happening. It's not easy--forewarned is not
necessarily forearmed and, as in so many time travel stories, trying to
improve history often backfires. And Winston discovers that often the
knowledge that "next time" he could do things differently makes his
decisions this time seem meaningless. But he keeps trying to change
things. Sometimes he leads a life of dissipation; other times he tries
to change the world. Sometimes he tries working behind the scenes;
other times he tells everyone he can predict the future. (The latter
scenario is particularly chilling.)
One wonders how a novel such as this could have a satisfying
resolution, but Grimwood manages it very well. As a unique approach to
alternate history and time travel, _R_e_p_l_a_y is highly recommended.
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT ALMOST BLANK
Star Trek Funnies VIII
by Jeff Trim
Picard: "Star Date 144565.09. We are in orbit around Gamma-Bingulese VI,
and we have established no contact with the civilization there.
I anxiously awaiting a script change so I can get on with this
episode."
[ Enter Wesley - wearing his usual RAINBOW BRIGHT Costume ]
Picard: "Ensign Crusher, WHY ARE YOU ON THE BRIDGE??"
Wesley: "...uh...I was planning on NAVIGATING the ship as ALWAYS Sir! You
know if I WAS AN ADULT you wouldn't give me this kind of trouble
all the time!!"
Picard: "It's not because you're YOUNG, it's because you behave like a
2-year-old! Act like a man and fly the ship for once!!"
Wesley: "If you keep pushing me, Picard, I'm gonna pull rank on you!"
Picard: "HA! A little IMP like you! You couldn't pull rank on me in 20
Billion Years!! If I could write these scripts I'd have you
beamed on to an asteroid."
Wesley: "Okay, Picard, that's it! Gene?"
Gene: "Why, Yes Wesley!"
Wesley: "I want you to let me run the ship for once!!"
Gene: "Okay, let me tell script writer Bob. YO, BOB!"
Bob: "I've already got the answer to this one Gene! Ready - ACTION!!"
Yar: "Message from Star Fleet Command! Ensign Crusher gets Immediate
Command!"
Troi: "Oh Pain, Great Pain..."
[ Yar is about to say something WHEN... ]
Wesley: "DON'T SAY IT, YAR! You only get one line per episode."
Yar: "Oh yeah, I forgot about that...[ realizing her mistake ] Oops, oh,
well, I guess I've said this week's line! I guess I am picking my
check up at the door now."
Gene: "That's right, Yar, bye now!"
Yar: "See you next week Gene!"
Star Trek Funnies 8 March 4, 1988 Page 2
Welsey: "Take Mr. Picard and his smiling "Number One" down to security and
book 'em!"
Picard: [ Realizing it's a choice of Fight or Surrender to the situation ]
"Okay, I surrender!"
Wesley: "I knew you would Sir, bye now!"
Data: "What are your orders [ trying to keep from laughing ], Captain
Welsey?"
Welsey: "Oh Boy..weeeeeeee. Gee Golly this is fun! What does that button
do? I want to try the Photon Firing Controls, launch a couple of
those Gravidic Mines!"
Worf: "Okay, I'VE HAD IT. [ Pulls out a Klingon Communicator ] Beam me
outta here, Krudge!"
Krudge: "Gladly, Worf! Disengage Cloaking Device!"
[ In front of Enterprise, a Shimmering Klingon Bird of Prey appears ]
[ At that same instance, Worf Beams Away! ]
Ryker: "Worf, is that you?"
Worf: "You betcha! On this ship I get to have more lines and I don't have
to say stuff like "Oh, gee, Wesley you're such a GOD" It's great!
Want to switch sides?"
Ryker: "SURE - count me in, anyone else?"
Troi: [ looking at Wesley ] "..uh..yeah! Get me off this rust bucket!"
Data: "Intriguing, we'd actually get more LINES! Count me in! Besides, he
took over MY NAVIGATION Station! I've wanted to get even for 20
episodes now!!"
Picard: "You know after the 21st episode Wesley's shirt has really started
to smell. ICK, I would just leave to get away from that!" Change
your shirt for christsake!!! Put on some deodorant!!"
[ They beam out, leaving Wesley alone on the bridge ]
Wesley: "Aw Gee.... [tears on his face ], WAAAAAHH."
Gene: "Cheer up Wesley, you still have 3,100 other people to command"
Wesley: "Oh Yeah! That's Right! All Kids between the ages of 12-15 report
to the bridge!"
And so, we leave the TNG - as it always is, with Wesley getting all the
lines and all the kids having all the fun! But isn't that what Star Trek
is all about? We don't need mature adults in space after all - Wesley can
handle it!